


Snakebite First Aid

by Darkmirror



Series: Learning to Fly [9]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, Young Justice (Cartoon), Young Justice - All Media Types
Genre: First Aid, Gen, Snakes, Training, snakebite, venom - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-08
Updated: 2020-11-08
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:48:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,853
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27458269
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Darkmirror/pseuds/Darkmirror
Summary: While on a mission Rocket gets bitten by a snake. Good thing Batman has trained his partner to be ready for any scenario.
Series: Learning to Fly [9]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1868839
Comments: 6
Kudos: 34





	Snakebite First Aid

**Author's Note:**

> This story takes place sometime after Season 1 but not too far past that.

Rocket screamed and Robin whirled around, dropping into a defensive stance, batarangs in hand, to face their attacker. He had thought they’d gotten away clean but it wouldn't be the first time one of their “covert” missions became non-convert.

Robin saw no one attacking his fallen teammate but his eyes widened in shock at spotting what had attacked her. 

Quickly he threw one of his batarangs at the creature, severing its head cleanly below the venom ducts, as he dashed to his friend’s side.

“Shit!” she said, holding her hand to her chest where Robin feared she’d been bitten. 

“Where were you hit?” He asked quickly, praying she hadn't actually somehow been bitten so close to her heart. That would be fatal.

“My hand,” she groaned, clutching it closer to her chest. Robin almost sighed in relief. As not good as that was, it was definitely better than the alternative he’d jumped to.

“Let me see,” he ordered as he moved to replace her hold on the appendage, lowering it between them so it was angled below her heart. 

“Shit! I’m gonna die. Oh damn I’m gonna die. It was poisonous. Aw shit,” she began babbling, completely unchecked as she let her fear start to take over. She had no idea what kind of snake that was or if it was venomous, but it had bit her and that meant it was, and she had no idea what to do and they were in the middle of nowhere and she’d never reach help in time and now she was going to die and this was going to be the end of her life and she’d never turn 16, she’d never get married, she’d never join the League, there was no more hope for her.

Robin quickly looked behind him at the snake he had killed. He recognized it. 

“Calm down,” he said, for all the good it did. Rocket was very quickly working herself into a panic and the last thing Robin, or she, needed at the moment was her increasing her heart rate. 

“Rocket!” Robin shouted (hoping no one was nearby to hear it). She stopped her hysterics and looked to the Boy Wonder, fear very clear in her eyes. “Calm. Dow-.” 

“Why the heck should I be calm,” she shouted hysterically, her eyes wide with fear and panic.. “I just got bit by a snake and am goin’ to die!”

“You are not going to die,” Robin said firmly, glaring at his teammate. It didn’t even phase her so pervasive was her fear

“How do you know that? Are you some kinda snake bite expert or som-”

“Because I won't let it!” He shouted back angrily, his worry for her getting the better of him. Batman would not have been impressed. Robin could almost feel his mentor’s displeased look at his outburst and lack of control.So not the mental image they needed right now.

But he had meant it. He was not going to let her die. He was not going to lose his friend to this, not if he could help it. Flashes of his parents falling, his inability to save them, entered his mind and he viciously pushed the memories back.

Something in his tone or words must have struck a chord because Rocket stopped babbling. He gratefully took a steadying breath.

“Now breath with me. In....and out. In....and out. In....and out. Good. Again.” Robin repeated the sequence, happy to see her calming down.

This was good. The first step to treating a snakebite was to  **not** increase your heart rate or move around too much. 

“Good. Keep going,” Robin ordered, happy to note the lack of difficulty she had with breathing and that she didn’t seem to be having any trouble remaining conscious. All consistent signs for this type of snake. Turning his head slightly away from his teammate, he brought his hand up to his communicator. “M’gann,” he waited for her reply. “I need you to bring the bioship to our location stat. We need to get Rocket to the nearest hospital.” Raquel’s eyes widened. 

“What! Why?” She screeched and Robin could see her starting to panic again. 

“Relax.” Robin ordered, grabbing her shoulders and establishing eye contact. He needed to ground her and have her coherent. When this seemed to help he continued. “We need to get you to the hospital because that is standard procedure for any snakebite,” Robin explained, carefully omitting that this was especially true when the snake was venomous. He was hoping that this had been a dry bite- in which the snake had bitten but injected no venom- but he wasn’t going to risk her life on that hope. He needed to get her to a hospital.

Reaching back into his utility belt Robin pulled out a pair of shears, specifically designed for cutting through tough fabrics like kevlar and reinforced flight suits. 

“Wh-what’re those for?” Rocket asked, looking as though she was expecting Robin to say he’d be using them to cut off her limb rather than the lower half of her sleeves. Seriously, did none of the other mentors teach their partners basic first aid?

“I need to remove your glove and the lower half of your sleeves before the swelling starts,” Robin explained calmly. He placed the shears down and gently extended out and lowered her arm so it was pointing at the ground. 

“Is this where you can suck out the venom?” Rocket asked. Robin scrunched up his nose in disgust.

“Eww no. That’s just an old wives tale, it doesn’t work,” Robin said. She didn’t seem convinced (it’s what they did in all the movies after all) but she also didn’t argue the point. He was definitely going to have to talk with Batman about getting the Team some first aid training.

“How’re you feeling?” Robin asked as he began gently pulling off her glove, trying to be mindful of the actual bite area. 

Rocket swallowed, eyes glued to Robin’s every move. “Not great,” she said. Robin briefly smirked.

“How about the pain?” he asked.

“It hurts,” she said.

“Describe the pain. Is it burning?” Robin asked, happy to hear that the discussion seemed to be further distracting her from her earlier panicking. He finished removing the glove and bent over to get a look at the bite. It wasn’t discolored or looking abnormally infected, thankfully.

Raquel whimpered but luckily didn’t try to jerk her hand out of Robin’s hold.

“No,” she said tightly. “Just a sharp pain.” 

“Good. Let me know when it starts to burn,” Robin instructed as he picked up the shears and went to work on removing the two layers of sleeves from her right elbow down.

“Why? What does burning mean?” the heroine asked shakily. 

Robin put the shears back in his belt and pulled out some gauze and antiseptic spray.

“This is going to sting,” Robin warned just before spraying the bite. Rocket shouted, though more from surprise than the level of pain it caused. Robin began wrapping the injury loosely. 

_ Coming in _ , M’gann said in his mind. He grunted an affirmative. 

“I’ll need you to levitate us up into the ship,” Robin said to M’gann aloud so that Rocket would know what was going to happen as well. She confirmed. 

“Robin.” 

The Boy Wonder looked up at his friend. She looked scared.

“What does burning mean?” He looked back down to finish tying off the gauze. 

“It is the next stage of pain possible for this type of bite. You could begin feeling a burning sensation within 15 to 30 minutes after the initial bite,” Robin explained. 

_ Ready when you are Robin _ , M’gann said. 

“What type of bite is this?” Rocket asked, sounding almost as though she didn’t actually want the answer to that question.

“M’gann’s ready to move us,” Robin said, ignoring her question for now. It was more important that he get her to a hospital quickly, then to have to take more time to calm her back down after he told her ‘the venomous kind’. “She’s going to levitate us up into the ship. I need you to focus on keeping yourself still and calm. Can you do that?” 

Raquel stared at him fearfully for a moment but then seemed to get ahold of herself. She closed her eyes and nodded. When she reopened them she looked much steadier.

“Yes.”

Robin nodded. “Good,” he said with a grin that she tried to return. He turned around and carefully picked up the dead snake from the rocky outcrop it had likely been hiding in when they passed by. He knew that being able to identify the snake would be crucial in order for the doctors to give her the correct antivenom.

“Ready Miss M,” Robin said. Immediately he and Rocket started floating into the air and up towards where he assumed the bio ship was waiting in camouflage mode. 

“Are you guys ok?” M’gann immediately asked as they entered the ship, looking worried. 

“We’re ok. Place Rocket on the gurney and take off,” Robin said. M’gann nodded and Robin felt her telepathy slide off him as he landed in the ship. She focused on moving Rocket steadily over to the medical bed she had constructed and then dashed back to her pilots chair.

Robin placed the snake in a bag and moved after his injured teammate. 

“Don’t lay down,” Robin said, halting Rocket from continuing to do just that. 

“Why?” She asked, instead folding her legs up on the gurney indian style and letting her injured hand hang down in front of her. 

“Because you need to keep the bite below your heart,” Robin said and he saw Raquel finally connect the dots. 

“It was venomous,” she said and Robin was pleased to see this news did not seem to reignite her panic. He supposed it was because she had likely already guessed this was the case. “You don't want the blood circulation to my heart to go faster.” Robin nodded. 

“ETA to the nearest hospital is three minutes,” M’gann said as she began piloting the ship towards their destination.

“Roger,” Robin said. Rocket snorted. 

“Roger?” she teased. Robin smirked, pleased to hear her joking.

“Sorry, got a little too serious right there,” he joked. Rocket’s smirk widened. 

“Ya think.” They both grinned. 

“M’gann what's the nearest hospital?” Robin asked a moment later as he pulled up his wrist computer. She told him and he located their phone number quickly. After informing them of their incoming case he shut his wrist computer back down.

“Robin.” He turned to look up at Rocket. She gave him a gentle smile. “Thanks.”

He smiled back at her, the ship coming in for landing. “Anytime.” 

\--------------

_ A few hours later at the hospital. _

“So who taught you how to do that?” Raquel asked, gesturing to her freshly bandaged hand from her comfy spot in the hospital bed. Doctors had administered the antivenom and she was slated to make a full recovery, but Raquel was being kept overnight for observation just to be safe. 

“Who else?” Robin smirked. “Batman.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading:) Hope you guys all enjoyed this one.  
> The first aid treatment portrayed here for snakebites is accurate. Or so the internet tells me. I left the type of snake and the area they were in vague so everyone could fill it in with whatever type of snake was regional to them or that they wanted to picture:)  
> Please leave a comment and/or kudo!!


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